Ramachandra Pandurang Kamat

Born 30 July 1907Died 25 May 2000 (Circa)

Active: 1931 - 2000

Country of birth and death: India

Sculptor

Born in Madkai (Marcaim), North Goa, where he received his early education before entering Sir Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy School of Art, Mumbai. With a recommendation from the painter and sculptor Antonio Piedade Da Cruz, Kamat was accepted as a probationer in the Royal Academy (RA) Schools in January 1931. He was formally admitted to the School of Sculpture on 24 March that year.

In 1933 Kamat was awarded the RA Gold Medal, and was granted leave of absence for foreign travel. He sailed for Lisbon from Southampton on 10 March 1934. After his return to London he secured one of the newly-instituted Leverhulme Scholarships (January 1935). At the end of summer term that year, with some time of his studentship yet to expire, Kamat decided to leave the Academy and return to India, sailing from London for Mumbai on 12 July.

He is perhaps best remembered for his bronze group of the Abbe Faria hypnotizing a female subject (inaugurated 20 September 1945, next to the old Government Secretatiat, Panjim, Goa). However Kamat is well represented in monumental public works elsewhere, such as the figure of the goddess Lakshmi atop the Laxmi Insurance Building, Mumbai (1940) and the gigantic equestrian monument to Shivaji Maharaj at Pratapgad Fort, Maharashtra, unveiled by Pandit Nehru on 30 November 1957.

During his time in London Kamat lived at the following addresses:

1931 112 Gower Street WC1

1931-3(?) 103 Canfield Gardens NW6

1934 172 Warwick Road, Kensington

1935 43 Broadhurst Gardens NW6

This record was submitted by Adrian Hicken and is based principally on these sources:

Exhibitions, Meetings, Awards and other Events

Institutional and Business Connections

Studied at Royal Academy Schools 1931 (Presumed) - 1933 (Presumed)Awarded a second Landseer Prize of £10 and a bronze medal, for a model of a design, and a first Landseer Prize of £30 and silver medal, for a set of three models of a figure from the life, in 1931. See Royal Academy, 'Annual Report, 1931', (1932), p. 43. The following year, he won the Edward Scott Scholarship and silver medal for a model of a design of a subject combined with architecture, and a second Landseer Prize of £10 and bronze medal for two models of busts from the life. See 'Annual Report, 1932', (1933), pp. 42-43. In 1933, he won the gold medal and Edward Scott Travelling Studentship of £200, for a composition in sculpture, and two year Landseer Scholarship for sculpture. See 'Annual Report, 1933', (1934), pp. 38-39.

Citing this record

'Ramachandra Pandurang Kamat', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib4_1263987590, accessed 07 Jun 2020]